What is monero (XMR)?

Totte Löfström

The cryptocurrency monero (XMR) is quite popular among crypto interested people around the world, but how does it differ from other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum?

The cryptocurrency monero (XMR) was released on April 18, 2014, with the goal to be the primary cryptocurrency for those who want do make fully anonymous transactions. Since the start, monero has grown in popularity but the big breakthrough came during the late summer of 2016 when the darknet market place Alphabay decided to implement monero for payments.

The name monero means “coin” in the constructed international auxiliary language esperanto, but upon launch the original name was bitmonero. This was however changed to just monero five days after launch.

The goal: to be a completely anonomous cryptocurrency

The goal of monero is to be fully anonymous, both regarding sender, receiver, amount and time for a transaction. This is achieved with the help of a protocol called “cryptonote”, which is designed to encrypt all information stored on the blockchain. This is in contrast to the fully open blockchain solution used by for example bitcoin.

Anonymous cryptocurrencies are a problem for states that want to be able to stop crimes like money laundering, financing of terrorism and illegal dealing with drugs. Therefore, Japan among others has prohibited financial services to offer to trade monero.

As of today, the market cap for monero represents about one percent of the total market cap for all cryptocurrencies.

If you would like to learn more about monero, you could visit the official site of the project, getmonero.org.